Daniel Holmes, the Welshman currently sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence for trafficking cannabis, has been released from jail and has left Malta to join his family in Wales.

Holmes, 28 at the time and living in a €300-a-month apartment in Gozo, was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay a €23,000 fine in 2011, after he was caught together with friend Barry Lee, with possessing five mature cannabis plants and 28 seedlings.

According to proceedings in court, the police found small marked bags with cannabis, which, they claimed, proved he was trafficking the plant.

Despite the verdict Holmes has insisted throughout that the plants were for his and Lee’s own personal use.

Since Holmes was sentenced, Malta has amended its drug laws, passing two amendments to allow patients easy legal access to medicinal cannabis.

Earlier this year, parliament also approved a law allowing companies to set up production facilities in Malta, from where they will be exporting medical cannabis preparations, not much different to what Holmes was growing at home.